Beauty in Arrogance
by rasberrypumpkin27
Summary: AU-A curse is placed upon Bellamy Blake that he has to break before the spring solstice. Clarke in search of her father who has disappeared, stumbles upon the home of the beast.


**"Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it" (Confucius)**

* * *

It all had occurred late in the summer.

Bellamy Blake was no prince charming. Sure he was a prince but that didn't mean he was charming, well that wasn't completely true. He could be quite charming when no one was around, which was even more endearing because it wasn't an act. His other charming side was less pleasant because he mostly used it when he wanted to bed one of the fair ladies that he would meet at one of the balls he was forced to attend.

Among the young ladies, Bellamy Blake was quite famous. He was famous for his brown unruly kept hair and his olive skin-toned lean body. Not to mention the beautiful light freckles that were scattered on his face.

Despite his popularity with the ladies, Bellamy Blake seemed to have angered a witch much to his surprise. It had seemed that the brunette named Elle? Emma? Or Echo was it? She had not taken well to his one-nightstand policy or rather didn't really understand the reason for having that said policy. It was after they had fooled around in his bedroom that she had asked him why he just fooled around (she simply asked because she was curious, not because she wanted to purse a relationship with him or anything). Bellamy was irritated because he had explained to her that if they were to fool around, she would not question him about his life and that she were not to expect anything from him, simply replied 'because he could do whatever the hell he wanted'. Not liking his arrogant attitude, (though she was being a bit unfair because she could be quite arrogant herself) Echo easily quickly dressed and muttered words that Bellamy couldn't quite hear. He was quickly pulling on a pair pants when he looked up to see that Echo had placed a white-blue hyacinth flower on his bed as well as a mirror. As she made her way out the door, she simply stated three things. First, she mentioned that she would leave a mirror as a sort of gift, a mirror that could show him the outside world if he chose to stop showing his face around town. Then, she mentioned that if he were to reverse the curse, he would have to learn how to be sincere with his true feelings and that he would have to do so before the next spring equinox.

Before Bellamy Blake could even think to capture Echo, she vanished into the night, leaving a yellow-eyed, large sharp bared teeth, and lightly fur covered Bellamy.

* * *

Clarke Griffin was beyond annoyed. She had stopped to buy some fresh vegetables from the market in order to make her father some soup, for he had started to get sick and Clarke knew that he would enjoy the only decent meal she could cook, when she ran into Finn. Now, she had to listen to a Finn Collins who would not stop taking about his recent trip to the forest. He was the town's best tracker and would often lead a hunting party to either find food or to 'protect' the town from horrendous creatures that ran in the forest, though he refused to kill any of the creatures they found. As Clarke continued to pretend that she was listening to Finn's supposed heroic act, Clarke couldn't help but wonder why on earth she ever felt attracted to him in the first place.

Sure Finn was a nice and sweet guy when she first met him and after months of him begging her to let him take her to dinner, she let him, only to discover that although he could be sweet, he wasn't as sincere as he seemed to be.

"So then I told him we had to leave because we started to get closer to the beast's castle," Finn continued.

"I'm sorry Finn, I really should get going. I need to start an early dinner as soon as possible."

"Oh, an early dinner I see. I wouldn't mind having a taste of your cooking," Finn smiled.

Clarke wanted to wipe the smile of his face. Really, what did she ever see in Finn Collins? Clarke knew he was subtly asking for an invitation but she wasn't in the mood for entertaining him. All Clarke cared about was cheering her father up with the soup and finishing her painting that she had been working on for about a week. "My cooking is not too good, but maybe some other day I can let you try it," Clarke forced a smile.

"I'll hold you to it," Finn said before he kissed her on the cheek and walked towards the center of town.

As soon as Finn walked away, Clarke started to walk towards home, which was more towards the edge of town. The little house that her father owned was quite small even though they had money. When Clarke stepped through the front door, she knew something was off. Her father was supposed to be home, working on one of his inventions. As far as she knew, he wasn't done with it and wasn't supposed to take one of his inventions he had recently completed to the other nearby town until the next week.

As Clarke went to put down her groceries, she found a note that her father wrote, stating that he had to go to Walden earlier than planned. Clarke knew she was being a bit paranoid. Her father often went on trips to other towns and sometimes would not come home until days later, but he never left without telling her goodbye.

* * *

Much later in the afternoon, Clarke was still thinking of her father. Clarke knew her father could take care of himself, she could not get rid of the feeling that something was going to happen. To ease her uneasiness, Clarke figured that she would go into the outskirts of the forest to collect some herbs (it was one of the few things that helped her take her mind off other things). She settled for taking a small knife and a small gun. Though her dad didn't really like guns, he knew that the forest could be a dangerous place so he always gave Clarke one when she would go to collect herbs. Just as Clarke finally finished getting ready, she heard the wild cry of her father's horse. Quickly opening the door, Clarke expected to find her father and was going to scold him for leaving without telling her, when she noticed that Atom came home all bloody. Not sure if it was her father's blood of Atom's, Clarke was momentarily at a loss of what to do but the horse started nudging her towards the trail that led to the forest. Shaking all thoughts that her father could be dead, Clarke quickly mounted Atom who then quickly started galloping towards the forest. All Clarke could think as she approached the ominous dark-looking forest was that her father had to be alright, he had just to.

* * *

 **A/N: Updates will be infrequent.**


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